Have you ever wondered why we’re so specific about how and where you place your body during your workout, why we take so much time to set up the exercises, or why we’re so darn adamant on getting those ‘hips square’, and ‘ribs soft’? Improving alignment is a huge part of what we do as Pilates and movement instructors, during our training we were trained to identify areas of misalignment and how they might be affecting a clients movement, and potentially causing pain. So we literally go looking for it, and then use a combination of mobility and strengthening exercises, verbal imagery and tactile cueing, and Pilates props to help us improve it.
What is good alignment?
It’s important before we continue, to know that good alignment isn’t the same for every person. We all have slight genetic variations in bone shape and size and so our joint surfaces interact in slightly different ways as we move around. In our daily movement repertoire we have repeated postures, movements and activities that create ares of increased strength and tension. For example, think about how you hoover- the chances are that you use the same hand to move the hoover around, maybe you even rock forward on one leg more than the other. Movement patterns like this can add up through the day, and weeks, and increased muscular tension can start to shift your joints away from their ideal alignment - this generally doesn’t impact us, and can go unnoticed for long periods of time but sometimes when there’s enough misalignment, and the right combination of load and pressure, this can result in tight spots, discomfort, or possibly pain.
Why is it so important?
Proper alignment allows your joints, muscles and soft tissues to function with the least amount of stress and tension on them, this can delay degenerative changes to your joints surfaces and soft tissues, and generally reduce your chances of injury. It’s more and more important as we age as there’s less fluid in our joints to cushion them and an array of hormonal changes that can cause mineral loss in bone tissue, among other things.
Exercising with a focus on good alignment could mean going up and down the stairs with less knee pain, sitting (or standing) comfortably at your desk for longer, or finally feeling your pelvic floor has returned to full strength without having to consciously ‘lift’ or ‘squeeze’ all the time. People often talk about not being able to ‘connect’ to their pelvic floor, or ’fire up’ their glutes, more often than not the issue is not the pelvic floor or the glutes themselves but poor alignment of the surrounding structures making it impossible for the muscles to do their job.
In the studio environment we get to really nerd out on picking exactly the right exercises for each individual body, and problem solving how we reduce tension or pain, or eliminate that recurring injury, and in the group class setting we work more generally, picking an alignment goal and work towards it collectively.
Try to enjoy the setup phase of each exercise, whether you’re on the mat or the reformer, lying on your side or on hands and knees, it’s your chance to get your bones and joints in the place where they’re most likely to speak to your muscles and other connective tissues effectively, and chance for you to really connect mind to body- sometimes this means taking your time and slowing down a little but you’re rewarded with the most efficient way to work your body (pain free), PLUS often a few repetitions is more than enough to feel the ‘burn’ when you’re aligned in the best possible way for your body.